Choo Choo! Here comes the Train!

We're starting the year with a preschool favorite theme...Trains! I had a couple of things from before when we did this theme HERE but I wanted something new! I found some great resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Transportation board. I made my version of Melissa's train set. Check out her blogpost HERE.  Now, we're ready to Choo Choo and Clickety Clack for Storytime!
Be sure to see the other ideas on this week's  Flannel Friday Roundup!

Flowers Make a Rainbow

I'm so happy that the daffodils and hyacinth are blooming here!!  I couldn't resist this adorable flower rhyme. I've had it a long time and used it several ways. I made a new set of flowers to go with it and am sharing with everyone in time for springtime flower storytimes!! Here's a link for a printable copy of 'Flowers Make a Rainbow'. I used my Sizzix flower diecut and 2 shades of each color to make my newest flower set. You can't tell it but there are two shades of yellow on the yellow flowers. Anyway, you can do the rhyme and put up the flowers then talk about the colors and the concept of 'more than'. If you have a fairly small group you can hand out the flowers and let the kiddos bring up the color as you say the rhyme. This is a more tactile way to get the concept of  'more' as they help make the rows of colors. There are lots of ways to use these flowers! There's always so much Fun with Friends at Storytime in the spring!!

There are more great posts on the Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. Here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog for more info!

Beautiful Butterflies

Butterflies are incredibly beautiful and such a wonderful storytime theme! I haven't checked the Flannel Friday Pinterest boards yet, but I'm sure there are several with butterfly posts.  I thought I'd add mine here. I have an original rhyme, Color Butterflies, that I use with my large glittery felt butterflies and diecut matching butterflies that I hand out to the kiddos to bring to the pretend flannelboard 'garden'.  I also use the large butterflies minus one to do a counting rhyme. I can't remember where I found it sooo long ago!

Counting Butterflies

Six little butterflies happy to be alive

One flew off, then there were five.

Five little butterflies on flowers galore,

One flew off, then there were four.

Four little butterflies among the sweet peas

One flew off, then there were three.

Three little butterflies with nothing to do,

                                   One flew off, then there were two.

                                         Two little butterflies resting in the sun,

                                      One flew off, then there was one.

                                        One little butterfly, now the only one,

                                        She flew off, then there was none.

You can see the pic of the craft. A coworker shared this idea many years ago. I used snack ziploc bags that the kiddos spooned some colored cereal into. They colored the clothespin black. Then the bag and a small piece of black pipecleaner was pinched together in the clothespin to make the 'butterfly'.  Instead of cereal you could use shredded tissue paper or sequins. (This is a craft from many years ago ... librarians/preschool teachers don't throw anything away LOL!)   Butterflies are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Bridget @ What is Bridget Reading? has the rest of this week's roundup.Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog.  Be sure to  join us on the Flannel Friday Facebook page and enjoy the great Flannel Friday Pinterest boards too!

Penguin Fun!

Penguins lend themselves to preschool storytime so well because they are incredibly cute and funny!! I have several penguin flannel sets including my set to match the story, 'Pippa's Penguins' by Susan M. Dailey featured at Rain Makes Applesauce by Sharon, The Reading Chick and at the blog, A Bad Case of Books. I have used nonfiction books with big pictures and talked about penguins on selected pages. There are several penguin rhymes and stories at the Flannel Friday Polar Animal board.  Here's my set of felt penguins that I use with the rhyme Six Little Penguins by Nancy J. Smith, I found here and here.  I also have 5 penguin Beanie Babies that I use with another count to 5 penguin rhyme.

My penguins are made of felt and fabric paint and miniature pom poms.  I deconstructed a Google image for my pattern.  Check out this fabulous link I found for penguin rhymes HERE. Penguins are so much Fun with Friends at Storytime!!